Mark it down: Martin wins Southern 500

DARLINGTON — At this rate, Mark Martin might never want to retire.

The 50-year-old, who announced earlier this week he will race another full season next year, won the Southern 500 on Saturday at Darlington Raceway.

“I’m living my second childhood right now,” Martin said. “This is unbelievable and such a big surprise. I never expected to run this well tonight.”

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It’s Martin’s second victory of the season and second career Cup win at the Lady in Black.

Martin’s other one came in the 1993 Southern 500 when he was driving for Roush Racing. Martin has a record eight Nationwide wins at the track.

Martin also has won multiple races for the first time since 1999.

Martin took the lead on lap 321 after his team elected to stay out following a caution. Then he had to hold off Jimmie Johnson, who made a couple attempts to pass but couldn’t get close and settled for second.

“We had a great strategy to get up there and then take the lead at the end,” Martin said. “I’m really lucky to be working with some of the brightest NASCAR has ever seen.”

Johnson had an adventurous two days at Darlington. He crashed during qualifying and had to start 42nd. During the race, he got boxed in on pit road and had to fight his way back toward the front.
Johnson made a couple attempts to get by but had to scale back to save fuel.

“Deep down, I knew I wasn’t going to get by him,” Johnson said. “Mark drove thirty or forty awesome laps at the end.”

Jeff Gordon finished third, giving Hendrick Motorsports a 1-2-3 finish. Hendrick cars have 13 Cup wins at the track, most of any team.

Stewart-Haas racing teammates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, who use Hendrick Motorsports engines, finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

With the finish, Stewart moves up to second in points and trails Gordon by 29.

The race turned into one of survival with a record 17 cautions. The old mark of 15 was set in 1995.

Stewart said the amount of cautions were a product of lap traffic and cars running faster speeds on the surface, which was repaved last year.

“It’s like a wrestling match for 367 laps,” Stewart said. “We are running so fast and the lap cars were absolutely miserable. But the track is fine and you don’t need to change anything. It just needs seasoning over time.”

Greg Biffle led a race-high 117 laps but found trouble on lap 284 when he bumped teammate Carl Edwards. A spinout on lap 294 cost him a shot at contending.

“I don’t know what happened out there,” Biffle said. “I had a great car and couldn’t get back up there.”

Kyle Busch’s rough weekend ended in 34th place. Busch, who led 143 of 153 laps in Friday’s Nationwide race but finished 16th, had a tire go down on lap 273 of the Southern 500.